Reviving wadi halfa a tale of three cities

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REVIVING WADI HALFA: A TALE OF THREE TOWNS*
Adil Mustafa Ahmad and M. Sc. (Physical Planning) students:
Sawsan Bilal, Fatima Khattab, Reem Rahama, Faisal al-Garrai,
Mohamed Hamid and Amira Ibrahim
Faculty of Architecture, University of Khartoum, Sudan.
Abstract
The people of Wadi Halfa town in northern Sudan seem set for a promising future after
having endured more than four decades of dire existence. The town has had a peculiar
history. It lies in Nubia, the historic region where one of the earliest human civilisations
flourished more than 5500 years ago. The remnants of the original town that once stood by
the Nile now rest below 65 metres accumulated after 1964 when the High Dam was
constructed in Egypt. Following that date, a new town gradually materialised by the side of
the man-made lake sheltering those who resisted the forced evacuation and resettlement in
eastern Sudan in what has been called New Halfa. This lakeside town was practically
neglected by the successive governments. It recently regained recognition but still suffers
various problems. Today, for varying motives, the northern region is starting to attract
numerous, large-scale projects and the town thus has a chance to participate fully and share
the benefits. This is aided by current difficulties in New Halfa which have turned the town
into a repelling entity. This paper argues that marked counter-migration from New Halfa
back to Wadi Halfa seems both inevitable and desirsble; it calls for careful planning at the
urban and regional levels. It looks into the present state of the town, its current problems, its
human and natural resources and its development potential and then makes proposals to
create of Wadi Halfa an attractive destination for counter-migrants and secure for it a bright,
sustainable future.
Keywords: Wadi Halfa, New Halfa, resettlement projects, regional development in the
Sudan, Sudanese-Egyptian relations, dam location.
Background
In 1964 a dramatic event of far reaching consequences hit the peaceful town of Wadi Halfa
in northern Sudan. It dislocated the town’s closely-knit communities and forced them out of
their homeland to two other locations. That event was the construction of the High Dam in
Egypt which promptly created a lake stretching about 500 kilometres – of which 150 are in
Sudanese soil. In the Sudan it is called Lake Nubia.
Nubia lies partly in the Sudan and partly in Egypt. In it flourished one of the earliest human
civilisations, possibly preceded only by that of Mesopotamia. According to Charles Bonnet
the Nubian civilisation started in the Sudanese region then moved northwards to give rise to
that of Ancient Egypt (1,2). Bonnet and others stressed the differences between the two
civilisations.

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The flooding of Wadi Halfa started in mid-1964 and the affected halfawis, numbering about
53,000 (of whom about 17,000 were not resident at the time) were to be resettled in a
location in eastern Sudan (3).
Wadi Halfa was a small town on the east bank of the Nile (lat 22 N, long 31E). It was
mentioned by the Turco-Egyptian invaders when they advanced into the country in 1820 in
search of gold, the Nile sources, negro slaves, ivory, ostrich feather and the like. But the
town’s existence dates back to earlier times. The name comes from the halfa plant
(Cymbopogon proximus) which grows abundantly in that spot.
The town gained in importance during the Anglo-Egyptian occupation (1899-1955) as it
became a proper gateway to the country and the railway offered it an extra vitality. It was
calm and romantic. Two features in particular distiguished its houses form those of the rest
of the country. One was the internal courtyard – all rooms opened onto an inner court, a
social, environmental device descended from antiquity. (The internal courtyard appeared
also in the architecture of Sawakin on the Red Sea in a finer, more elaborate form but that,
too, had practically disintegrated by the end of the 1970s). The second distinguishing feature
was the house decoration on the facades and in the interiors of the dwellings with its bright
colours and symbolic forms (4,5,6).
In defiance of the military regime of General Ibrahim Abboud (1958-1964) and following
fierce rioting, police violence and detentions, some 600 families, numbering about 3,000
people, resisted the forced eviction. They stayed on despite the regime’s swift move to stop
the railway and steamer services, cut all government supplies and services from them and
officially ‘ignore’ their existence. As the water flowed deeper into the land it pushed them
further up out of the fertile bank strip into the barren desert. From there they would watch
their homes slowly crumble and their date palms gradually disappear – possibly meditating
on the two symbolisms of water in religion: life-giving on one hand, torture and annihilation
on the other. The remnants of the old town rest today below 65 metres of water.
That same year, 1964, a popular uprising (the October Revolution) overthrew the Abboud
regime. The new, democratically elected government was quick to recognise the harsh
situation of the neglected community but did little eventually to alleviate their suffering.
With the water level finally stabilising just below contour 182 metres above mean sea level,
the new lakeside town of Wadi Halfa was born several kilometres south of the original one.
This second Wadi Halfa is the subject of the present paper.
Its plans, done by the Ministry of Local Governments in 1966, showed the standardised
arrangement of blocks within a rigid rectangular grid with units of a dozen plots each with
ample areas of 800 square metres to accommodate the growth of households. Some blocks
were eliminated to create a large open space at the centre of each of the five blocks and
smaller ones were provided within the neighbourhoods. Block One contains the government
institutions, the hospital and various utilities. Block Five is the only one almost fully built
while the others have only half or less of the houses completed. The railway line used to

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mark the northern boundary but today planned and spontaneous settlements have cropped up
north of it.
This planning fails to take account of the indigenous patterns of the old town, how they were
generated and how they worked. It seems to proceed with the ‘official’ layouts that had
continued to be imposed on housing since the early 1950s despite persistent criticism (7). It
shows little regard for the natural contours or the lake as a dominant presence and seems to
consider only the strict east-west axis to orient the buildings for optimum thermal
performance.
In common with all northern regions, practically all the buildings are single storey. The
majority use mud for walling and roofing and only a tiny sector uses stone or reinforced
concrete. Pit latrines are predominant serving 75% of the buildings and only an insignificant
proportion of the buidings have septic tanks and soakaway wells. The streets are bare; due to
dearth of water people were discouraged from planting trees in front of their houses - yet
considerable greenery exists within the plots. The situation is aggravated by the fact that
there is no underground water in the region east of the Nile although it is plentiful west of
the river; the Nubian Aquifer, a huge reservoir of fresh underground water, lies in the Sudan,
Egypt, Libya and Chad.
Three pumps mounted on pontoons on the lake operate on shifts to provide 7,000 cubic
metres of water a day to a filtering station. The majority of the buildings are served by a
piping network. The drinking water quality, as elsewhere in the country, falls short of WHO
standards.
A power station generating 7 MW supplies the town with electricity for 21 hours a day.
The town has a port, a railway station and an airport and the final sector of the regional
artery Khartoum-Wadi Halfa now extended to Qustul in Egyptian Nubia has recently been
opened. Another main route is being constructed west of the lake and a bridge Dongola/as-
Sileim was opened in August 2009. All these are expected to activate growth, travel and
economic activities and create more job opportunities.
One hospital, four health centres and two primary care units serve the town’s population.
They are also served by 14 kindergartens and pre-school institutions, 15 primary (or basic
education) schools, three secondary schools and one faculty of the University of Dungula -
the Faculty of Geology was established in 1992 and the Department of Petroleum
Engineering has been added recently. There is one public library, one cultural centre, two
public parks and a football stadium. There were complaints about the buildings, equipment,
provisions and staffing of these institutions but discussing these will go beyond the scope of
this paper.
Recent Developments and Potential for Growth
Today, stimulated by local, regional and international moves to invest in the burgeoning oil
country, the Northern State is getting its share of large-scale investments. The Sudanese

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DAL Group is establishing an agricultural project covering 1.26 million acres in Argeen,
west of the lake. It aims principally to produce wheat for their mills and dairy products
business but for several months each year it would produce other crops to be marketed in the
region and in Egypt. Furthermore, the project would also include a ‘station’ where camels
walking from central Darfur along the famous darb al-arba‘een, (the forty days route) to be
sold in Egypt would rest, regain their lost weight and vitality and thus be less vulnerable to
exploitation by the purchaser. Qatar State has an adjoining agricultural project covering
600,000 acres. Both projects adopt the centre pivot irrigation system and draw from the
Nubian Aquefer.
A local project adjoining the town in what is called Khor Musa Basha and covering 310
acres is a main supplier of the agricultural market.
The lake and its banks are assets awaiting development: plentiful water, silt deposits
accumulated since 1964 and fish. Scenic beauty makes it a potential entertainment spot
capable of attracting tourists from other areas of the country and from southern Egypt. The
region still retains some important archaeological sites; new ones are being regularly
discovered lately stimulated by the government’s decision to build two more dams and thus
flood what is left of Sudanese Nubia.
Cooperatives and organised voluntary work have always been active among the halfawis, as
they have historically been in all riverian cultures. In our case they were indispensable for
sustaining life in the isolated community (8).
The region is particularly rich in minerals such as gold, silicon, chrome and iron as well as
marble and granite.
The Northern State has the advantage of being free of landmined – a problem that has lately
plagued several regions in the country. Two million landmines are estimated to lie in
Sudanese soil; 1436 locations have been classified by the UN as ‘dangerous’ and work is
under way to clear them by 2011. But these are found principally around the three regional
capitals of the South as well as south of Kassala in the east (9). The Northern State, away
from armed conflicts, has remained a safe region.
The Constraints
Still, however, reviving the region is confronted with several constraints. One of these is the
high aridity of the environment. The effect of the lake on the environment is not as
perceptible as was predicted mainly because the prevailing winds blow constantly from the
north or the north east. It is the west bank that should benefit from the tempering effect of
the vast water surface but no data exist as yet to quantify reliably this effect; no
meteorological station has been set up in the west and the settlements are mainly in the east.
Sand creep from the north and east has to be arrested.
Due to the gentle slope of the ground the lake keeps advancing and retreating in a seasonal
rhythm following the variation of the Nile discharge and the operation of the dam in Egypt.

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As the water level falls the shore would move two or three kilometres away from the town.
Drawing water to the town then becomes a chronic problem; the old system of pumps on
floating pontoons would no longer meet the needs of the rising population of Wadi Halfa.
This population is still relatively small amounting to some 19,900 (in 2009) with the usual
imbalance due to the continual migration of males (in search of better education or
employment), substandard schooling and low levels of skills. This number is expected to rise
progressively stimulated by the new focus on the region. The entire Northern State has a
population of just 699,065 – less than 1.8% of the country’s total of 39,154, 490 (according
to the 2008 census) (10).
There have been strong but as yet unsubstantiated claims since the 1970s that the Northern
State has acted as a secret dump for hazardous wastes from other countries. If proven, this
would further retard the development efforts.
The hampering role of Egypt in the efforts to revive the Sudan has been reviewed at some
length in an earlier paper (11). Amazing but painfully real, Egypt will not abandon its old
myth of viewing the Sudan as the natural outlet from its escalating difficulties. It has
recently moved its southern border into Sudanese soil (12) and continuously patrols Lake
Nubia under the pretext of ‘fighting gambia’ although the low incidence of malaria in arid
Wadi Halfa hardly justifies the intensive patrolling. The pesticide DDT
(dichlorodiphenyltrichlorethane), banned since the early 1970s, continues to be
manufactured in Egypt and is sprayed freely in the process. DDT is one of the main causes
of breast cancer in women and of premature births; it infects fish and agricultural products
firmly closing world markets before them.
The Four Freedoms Agreement signed in 2005 by the Sudanese and Egyptian governments –
the freedom to enter, reside, work and own property – is designed to open the Sudan wide to
Egyptians since few Sudanese could benefit from it in overcrowded Egypt with its high
unemployment rates and shortage of land while Egyptian peasants and workers of all
standards would flock into the virgin Sudan attracted by job opportunities and better living
conditions (13).
The Decline of New Halfa
New Halfa, our third town, took positive steps initially to receive the newcomers. The
location, allegedly selected through a democratic process out of six alternatives, lies in the
Butana plain in eastern Sudan. The town and 27 villages were designed by the Ministry of
Local Governments and executed by a handful of local and foreign contractors. Khashm al-
Girba dam was constructed with a storage capacity of 1.3 billion square metres. An
agricultural scheme was established covering 366,825 acres to grow cotton, wheat, maize
and beans in addition to 24,000 acres comprising tenancies dedicated to the halfawis where
they would grow vegetables, fruits, fodder and legumes. Fruit ranches were leased to the
New Halfa Horticultural Administration covering some 900 acres. ‘Investment’ tenancies,

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amounting to about 9800 acres, were distributed to some workers and officials. The total
number of farmers today is officially 24,455. A sugar factory which had previously been
approved was constructed simultaneously with an initial annual output of 600,000 tons,
raised in the mid-1970s to 900,000 tons.
Until the late 1970s the system worked reasonably satisfactorily; it then headed for gradual
decline. The incompetence of some of the contractors soon became apparent in the poor
quality of the buildings they hurriedly produced under minimum supervision and
accountabiliy to meet their deadlines. Much cracking in walls was caused by the expansive
clay soils and before long some building elements were in need of repair or replacement.
Due to the accumulation of silt the original storage capacity of Khashm al-Girba dam has
dwindled to less than half of its designed capacity. The minister of irrigation declared in
2009 that it was more feasible economically to build new dams than spend on clearing 700
million cubic metres of silt from Khashm al-Girba dam at $5 a cubic metre (14). In addition
there is considerable seepage due to lack of regular repair as well as to a defective sluice.
Tenants have complained that most of the water stored, often amounting to 70% of it, was
directed to the sugar factory as a priority rather than to their tenancies. This has resulted in
acute shortages for human and animal consumption and for irrigation. Experts believe that
constructing the Siteit dam on the same River Atbara will solve the problem.
The fast growing and spreading mesquite tree (Prosopis chilensis) adds to the alarm of
farmers. The tree is not without benefits: it produces good quality firewood, its leaves and
fruit are highly nutritious fodder and it helps fertilise the soil through nitrogen fixing. But its
damaging effects seem to overwhelm these benefits: they lie in its invasion of the land aided
by the fertility of the soil, the rainy season, the animals that spread its seeds through their
doppings and the nomadic lifestyle in the region which takes them over vast areas. It is not
reasonable to speak of ‘eliminating’ the tree, as is often officially declared, the tree needs be
professionally ‘managed’ (15).
A further threat lurks in the asbestos present in the roofing sheets and the water piping
network. Now 46 years old, the material has undergone its natural deterioration and, as such,
turned into a known health hazard causing diseases such as lung cancer, mesothelioma and
asbestosis (16). About 10,000 roofs need replacement and the dismantling and removal
process is where the danger resides.
The newcomers’ alienation due to unfamiliar climatic phenomena such as rains, storms and
lightning have been a rich source of jokes – no one needs to be discreet about the physical
scene.
The social scene is more subtle but hardly more comforting. Shaken out of their isolation,
the peaceful halfawis were suddenly thrust into a new milieu where others from different
tribal and ethnic backgrounds settled or roamed the plains and were often up in arms. Arms
were commonly worn in the region, which was uncommon to the newcomers. They seemed
ill-equipped to adapt and, as a reaction, the demand to preserve their identity started to
become progressively more pressing. The issue of their social integration has not been

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convincingly explored because of its sensitive nature especially at the present time (when the
spectres of separation hover over the country) but much oral evidence suggests that it was
resisted by the newcomers.
Halfawis lament the sale of their houses or tenancies to foreigners and the permission of
non-Nubians to settle in their neighbourhoods. They continuously draw attention to the fact
that the town was given them as compensation for their lost homeland and is not the normal
town open to all. It is not surprising, therefore, that at the physical, social, economic and
psychological levels New Halfa has slowly bred distinct repelling forces and a counter
migration process is in progress.
Conclusions and Proposals
Yet regardless of the halfawis instinctive resentment of their forced uprooting and
resettlement for no national cause, they have ended up in possession of two towns and a
sizable lake – all capable of being worked to productive, sustainable states. The process calls
for concerted efforts from various sectors: private, governmental, co-operative and foreign.
Here we discuss only Wadi Halfa town.
No Sudanese government worth its salt should waver from setting as a priority the
confrontation of the Egyptian efforts to ‘occupy’ the Sudan which are ongoing both through
direct, physical moves and through imposed agreements. That would also serve other Arab
and African governments affected by Egypt’s self-serving ambitions. No development in
nothern Sudan can be visualised without the interests of its people being solidly placed
before those of Egypt.
Some counter-migration from New Halfa to Wadi Halfa is seen as both inevitable and
desirable and the latter needs to prepare to receive a stream of returnees. Planning further
extensions to the town should be illuminated by old housing patterns and social customs in
addition to incorporating contemporary planning and urban design trends where relevant.
Simultaneously, designing the individual dwellings would need to look closely at the old
their evolution into modern, functional ones in the light of recent developments. Energy
efficiency is one vital consideration; the utilisation of solar and wind power for Wadi Halfa
is being explored in a parallel study (17). It aims to introduce power generation from
renewable sources and secure ample water supplies for human and livestock consumption as
well as for irrigation and ‘greening’ the built environment. The necessary planting to deal
with sand creep will only then be possible.
The shortage of infrastructure and services has to be remedied (it could not be dealt with in
this limited space). Every block, when the majority of the houses have been built, should be
reasonably self-sufficient with its basic services provided at its core – its primary school,
health centre, local marketplace, social club, mosque and the like. The town would welcome
an embankment and adjoining ‘promenade’ to demarcate its boudary and enrich its social
life.

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It would be premature, before completing an ongoing survey of New Halfa, to attempt an
objective assessment of the resettlement experiment or of whether the Manaseer resettlement
project, for example, which is currently taking place has benefitted in any way from it (18).
It will equally be crucial to look into the feasibility of constructing dams on flat, desert
plains as a means of power generation. One cannot easily dismiss the claims that the
evaporation from these water surfaces would severely compromise the benefits. The
explosive issue of flooding archaeological sites thus losing world heritage has continued to
spark heated debates, cause riots and cost lives. International intervention must be sought to
stop such acts.
Acknowledgements
A large number of people, over an 18-month period, have supported us by generously offering oral
information, books, reports, and maps as well as impeccable hospitality to the students while at Wadi
Halfa in summer 2009. To all of them we extend our gratitude but above all we wish to thank Hassan
Ahmed Hassan, Mohamed el-Hassan Abdel Latif Mahir, Mohamed Jalal Hashim, Suad Ibrahim
Ahmed, Mahmoud Oshi, Abdel Moneim Sid Ahmed, Salah Qurnas, Ayyoub Ismail Ayyoub,
Mohamed Salih Amin, El-Rayah Abdel Salam, Yousuf Abu-Gideiri and Ahmed Siddig Uthman.
Notes and Select References
1. BONNET, Charles and Dominique Valbelle. The Nubian Pharoahs: Black Kings of the Nile.
American University of Cairo Press. Cairo. 2006.
2. ADAMS, William Y. Nubia: Corridor to Africa. Allen Lane, Princeton University Press. 1977.
3. DAFALLA, Hassan. The Nubian Exodus. C. Hurst & Co. London. 1975.
4. BELL, Herman. Paradise Lost: Nubia before the 1964 Hijra. DAL Group. Khartoum.
2009.
5. WENZEL, Marian. House Decoration in Nubia. Duckworth. London. 1972.
6. AYYOUB, Ayyoub Ismail. Tahjeer an-Nubiyyeen. (Arabic). Publisher not stated. 2008.
7. AHMAD, Adil Mustafa and M. Sc. Students. Low Cost Housing Projects in Khartoum.
Habitat International. 26(2002) . Pergamon Press. Pp 139-157.
8. REPUBLIC OF THE SUDAN. Ministry of Science and Technology. Popular Voluntary
Work in the Sudan: the Case of the Evacuation and Resettlement of Wadi Halfa People and
its Repercussions. (Arabic) Editor: Salih, A. O. 2007.
9. Statement by Maxwell Kirly, head of the UN Landmines Section in the Sudan, in a press
conference held in Khartoum on 28 January 2010.
10. REPUBLIC OF THE SUDAN. Department of Statistics. Fifth Population Census. 2008.

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11. AHMAD, Adil Mustafa. Post-Jonglei Planning in Southern Sudan – Combining
Environment and Development. Environment and Urbanization. International Institute for
Environment and Development. London. Vol. 20 No. 2, October 2008. Pp. 575-586.
12. Mohamed Jalal Hashim, Mohamed al-Hassan Mahir, personal communication.
13. See, for example, HASHIM, Mohamed Jalal, Sudanese-Egyptian Relations under the
Light of the Four Freedoms Agreement. (Arabic). A series of articles published in Ajras al-
Hurriyya newspaper, Khartoum, March to June 2009.
See also SIRR AL-KHATIM, Nabawiyya. Wadi Halfa Town Opens its Arms to
Development. (Arabic). A series of articles in as-Sahafa newspaper. Khartoum. October to
December 2009.
14. Statement by Kamal Ali Mohamed, the minister of irrigation, in As-Sudani newspaper,
Khartoum. 1 April 2009.
15. Kamil Shawqi, forestry expert and environmentalist. Personal communication.
16. AL-HASSAN, Ahmed Mohamed. The Health Hazards of Asbestos. (Arabic). As-Sudani
newspaper. Khartoum. 20 January 2009.
17. AHMAD, Adil Mustafa. Wadi Halfa: Sudan’s First Ecotown. Horn of Africa Fourth
Annual Conference under the theme Rural and Urban Ecosystems Management. Khartoum.
14-17 October 2009.
18. The Manaseer on the Main Nile are experiencing a similar ordeal after the construction
of the Marawi dam midway between Wadi Halfa and Khartoum with the same scenario of
evacuation, riots and detentions.
*This is a shortened version of an unpublished paper with the same title. Part of the work was conducted as a
project by the M. Sc. Students. However, they are not responsible for the analysis or opinions I have expressed.
AMA.

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